20mm WW1 Middle East British lancers (lockdown 15)

A unit of 12 British lancers.  These chaps are the Hat Early War British cavalry set with solar topees head swapped from the WW1 Tropical British infantry set.  Nice figures, one or two overly bendy lances, due to the soft plastic, but not too bad, although the lances weren't as detailed as the bamboo lances of the Bengal lancers.

These chaps again wear khaki drill uniforms and are mounted on chestnut horses - I've given some of them white blazes and socks for a bit of variety.

The unit in column of march.

Detail of the commander.

Head swops were a bit fiddly - they are just held on with a good superglue and I'm hoping that the glue, plus paint and varnish layers will provide enough stability that they don't drop off, otherwise they are getting a pin through the head.

I plan to do some dismounts for these using the Strelets Imperial Camel Corps dismounted figures, despite these figures having the wrong bandoleers (no pouches on the back according to PSR).  That still leaves plenty of figures from that set for dismounts for the mounted set (9 camels and riders), plus enough for another couple of 12 man mounted sections.  I might do my Strelets late WW1 cavalry as mounted yeomanry and head swop some of the Strelets dismounted figures with Brodie helmets.  Still so much to do and as lockdown is gradually lifting, so too will my free time alas.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 Late war Fallschirmjager (lockdown 14)

Another unit of 20mm WW2 Germans, these are Italeri (former Esci) fallschirmjagers.  I used the suggested colour pallet from the Crowood guide, which has turned out well, although they do appear a little dark from a distance.

The figures are really nicely sculpted and highly detailed, but they lack active poses and the majority are left handed, which makes the figures firing rifles look really odd.  Then there is the MG34 gunner leaning on his weapon, which is planted muzzle down in the dirt at his feet.  I suspect the elite fallschirmjager would not have done such a thing and I'm certain their NCOs would have had something to say on the matter, assuming the weapon didn't blow up in his face when he came to use it.

The whole zug, with a sniper in support.

Six man command team with panzerfaust.

Sniper - being a leftie, he looks most odd and I suspect unhistorical.

One of the rifle squads - all three are identical.

1st MG34 team with gunner grounding his weapon on the butt end, relatively correctly.

2nd MG34 team, with gunner nonchalantly grinding the weapon muzzle into the ground.  Earning himself a good chance of a charge, blinding or death in the process.

3rd MG34 team, this one using a German MG34 infantryman from the Italeri AT team set as there weren't enough supplied in the Fallschirmjager set.

Nicely detailed and easy to paint the raised detail, but I'm really not happy with them, mostly because of the high proportion of un-historical lefties.  Born in the 20's, you were likely to have had left-handedness slapped, smacked or whipped out of you very early on at school if not before and military weapons were almost exclusively supplied in the "normal" right handed version.

Still, they will do to use to try and stop the Allies breaking through the lines and in the last defence of Germany.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 US armoured jeeps (lockdown 13)

A pair of EWM US armoured jeeps to beef up my US recce forces.  Each is armed with a .50 cal HMG, which gives it a bit of stopping power against infantry, while the armour gives it a fair chance of getting out of trouble or holding off infantry, as long as they stay out of Panzerfaust range.

Decals are Skytrex and I94 from Pendraken, but no VIN or unit markings as I'm struggling to find them in 20mm - I94 does them in 15mm, but they look tiny on the 20mm vehicles.

These should be able to help out the M8 Greyhound and M20 Utility vehicle I already have available as recce for US troops.  I'll probably add a couple of regular recce jeeps at some point.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 DAK Pz IV F2 platoon (lockdown 12)

Another part finished project was my Pz IV F2 zug for the western desert and Tunisia.  I started these to take part in the BG Torch campaign, which sort of faded away, so progress ground to a halt.  So I dusted them off, touched up the paintwork, added decals and here they are.

Vehicles are from Early War Miniatures.  Unfortunately, they came with an odd set of tracks, only one set fitting the resin hulls - I assumed the others were off the PzIV D - at least from another PzIV mark anyway.  I did some modifications so they fit the hulls and off we went.  Two were assembled with closed turret hatch, the third was modelled open with a commander in the hatch, to signify the zug commander.

Decals are Skytrex iron crosses, PSC tank numbers and, I think, Flames of War palm trees.  Stowage from Sgts Mess.

Another vehicle in the zug

The commanders vehicle.  I used the Crowood painting guide, which suggests Russian uniform faded with Iraqi sand for the jacket. 

Detail of the zug commander.

Nice vehicles, I'll have to give them an outing, although they will have to watch out for that US artillery if it's a Torch game.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 DAK Kradshutzen squad (lockdown 11)

I had a box of Italeri German motorcycles assembled and base coated, languishing in the stalled projects box.  So I dug them out, added a few DAK infantry figures that I bought at a BnB a couple of years back and finished them as a Kradshutzen recce section for my 20mm DAK force.

The box gives you two motorcycles with rider and pillion passenger, as well as two motorcycle side cars with three crew.  The sidecars come with the option to build as MG34 armed or with a trooper carrying an MP40 - I did one of each.

 One of the motorcycles with rider and pillion using a pair of binoculars, suitable as transport for the section commander or an artillery observer team.

The other version of the motorcycle - here the MC is stationary and the observer has put a foot to the floor to steady himself.

MC and sidecar carrying a trooper with MP40.

MC and sidecar armed with an MG34.

The Kradshutzen recon squad mounted.

And dismounted, a rifle squad of 5 on the left and an MG34 team of three on the right.  Figures are mainly Revel, with a couple of Airfix thrown in.

Individual shots of the dismounted figures.  NCO type.

Guy preparing to throw a grenade.

Rifleman.

MP40.

Officer with pistol.

MG34 gunner rushing.

Assistant MG34 gunner with rifle rushing.

Assistant MG34 gunner with MP40. 

MC as transport for an artillery observer.

Dismounted artillery observer team.

Two sets of these come with the Italeri MC box.

I quite liked the way these guys turned out.  Not for the last time, I used the Crowood Painting Guide for suggestions on the colour pallet and was not disappointed.

As ever, thanks for looking. 

20mm WW1 Bengal Lancers (lockdown 10)

For a bit of variety from WW2, I dug out a box of Hat Colonial era Bengal Lancers.  Comparing pictures of WW1 Indian Lancers from Mark Hargreaves book on painting WW1 British, Dominion and Indian figures, there was little difference between the colonial era and WW1 era troops and at this scale, I figured I could get away with it.

I largely followed the paint recipes in the book, although decided I wanted to give them the dress puggree/turban, to make them more colourful to stand out on the tabletop.

Close up of the commander and a couple of lancers charging with lances levelled.

From behind - I could find no images of the neck covering part of the pugree, so followed a similar pattern to that on the front of the puggree/turban.  I added some old gold as a fringe at the bottom, although this may have been reserved for officers and other ranks may have had to make do with a white or some other light coloured fringe.

These figures from Hat are made in their soft, bendy plastic, but I found them to be easy to work with.  The soft plastic made it easy to cut away the hilt and guard of the sheathed sword on the officer with sword drawn, as well as the butt of the rifle protruding from the rifle bucket of the two rifle armed troopers.  The bamboo lances don't appear to be significantly bent out of shape, although the very long upright lances mean I have to use a double height storage box to avoid crushing them.  I might add some pennants to the lances at some time, to give some more colour, although they weren't used on active service, so I guess these are more realistic for combat.

These should be useful for early 20th Century operations in the NW Frontier, East Persian cordon, Mesopotamia, Palestine and even on the Western Front, although deployment of mounted lancers in Flanders would have been unlikely in the extreme.  They will also be great for what ifs, such as allied intervention forces in the Russian Civil War for Setting the East Ablaze and may even pop up in the fictional Black Sea country of Andreivia at some point.

Thanks for looking.